A quick note on “Carpenters”
There’s a thing unique to Germany (well there’s a lot but I’m picking one) called “The Carpenters”. This may sound like bullshit but it’s true, at least it’s the way I heard it. An old tradition says that people who wish to join the Carpenters Guild must travel the land for three years, never going to their home town, never paying for travel or room. They also have their own uniform (pictured). To me it seems like a professional hobo club, but these guys (and some ladies) are really well respected throughout the country and are pretty much beyond reproach. Like a human version of India’s sacred cows. Our tour manager who’s german and rarely has a kind word for anyone loves them. A few came to a couple of shows and while this small portion is by no means a fair representation of the whole, they were kind of dicks, self righteous and full of shit. Backstage after the show, drinking our beer and eating our food, “Well you, … you do this for money (chomp, chomp, chomp), we…we’re better than that (glug, glug, glug)…unlike you…we care about the spirit…we’re not materialistic…Do you have any apples?”. They wander germany, beware.

6/29/09 Athens, Greece
Today was a fly day and at the airport we bid farewell to Paco/Flaco our merch guy, sometimes tour manager and all around good guy, we also bid farewell to Peter our bus driver who was a great driver and had the best coffee machine on any bus ever. We drank a lot of coffee on the bus and it was all great, which is no mean feat. The flight on Olympic Air was ok, saw an episode of Frasier in greek ( the original language of the show, the U.S got a dubbed version) and seeing all that pithy humor in the language it was meant to be in was a revelation. We’re staying at a really really nice hotel, much nicer than we deserve. There’s a rooftop bar and an odder collection of band & crew I don’t think I’ve ever seen, Dinosaur Jr., Tricky, and Saxon we all up there drinking. the first day of the Rockwave Festival got canceled because of rainstorms. Actually it was a combination of rainstorms and little or no roofs over the stages which led to a lot of damages to generators, P.A.’s, and gear. Hopefully there’ll be a show tomorrow. Tried some really good baked feta cheese and I realized I don’t hate black olives (it was never a racist thing).

6/27/09 Graspop Festival, Dessel Belgium
Even though the fest was extremely dude-ish and smell-ish there were a couple of high points. Mastodon was pretty great and I was psyched that I got to see Wolves in the Throne Room who did not disappoint. There, I liked something. Go to hell. Flying to Athens tomorrow morning, last show on Monday. Yahoo.

6/27/09 Dessel Belgium, Graspop Festival
I think Graspop is Flemish for Dudefest, it’s a sea of dudes in black and stink a mile wide. The drive from Borlange to Dessel wasn’t 24 hours as expected but 25, boo-fucking-hoo. Wow, I really ain’t got shit today. So as special boredom bonus, a picture of an Asian bar with a cool name from Wurzburg. Enjoy!

6/26/09 traveling through Denmark
Another note from the “Peace & Love” festival. Instead of giving us food or catering, the good people at the festival gave us 2 bags of ceremonial Cheese Slippers. Although appearing at first to be thin cheese sandwiches, they are actually made of edible wood from the grrruuumph tree and the cheese like substance inside are flavored insoles. They can be worn or eaten, or they can be worn then eaten. From personal experience I can say that as a sandwich they make an excellent slipper. Sweden, leading the way.

6/25/09 Borlange, Sweden
We are playing the Peace & Love festival today and I found out that the name Peace & Love is a bit of a misnomer. Peace and Loveis PpEEEce UND LLovveee in swedish which translates in english to Thinning the Herd and the festival is sponsored by something calling itself the Swedish Eugenics Foundation We are playing on the Darwin Stage tonight and I’ve heard grim rumors of gun towers and land mines, maybe they’ll hold off until Motley Crue plays. Fingers crossed.

On a Lighter Note: We drove 22 hours from Osnabruck, Germany to Borlange, Sweden and tonight we’re driving back 23 hours to Dessel, Belgium. This is the time that the Das Boot description is most apt. Everyone will be completely sick of each other by the time we get to Belgium if not before. Strong drink and sleeping pills seem like the way to go.